This podcast will explore the remarkable story of an enslaved Muslim man named Omar ibn Said. His autobiography is one of the Library of Congress’s newest acquisitions. Written in Arabic in 1831, it is one of the very few memoirs written by an African-born man in the Americas. The podcast will trace Said’s life journey and the afterlife of his autobiography. The guests for this episode are Mary-Jane Deeb, the Chief of the Library of Congress’s African and Middle Eastern Division, and the historian Sylviane Diouf.

Additional Resources

• Omar Ibn Said Collection, Library of Congress